Thanks to our union, 239 UFT-represented employees who work in Title I-funded nonpublic schools have positions to return to in September.
Some of our nonpublic school members who work in religious schools heard whisperings earlier this year that these schools might be looking to replace them with what amounted to temporary workers. In my role as leader of the UFT’s Nonpublic Schools Chapter, I shared this information with our union, which requested a meeting with the Department of Education. The DOE told the union it was indeed possible that our members in approximately 120 Jewish, Catholic and Muslim schools could be removed from their positions at the start of the school year.
The union sprang into action and utilized all of its supports to try to save these jobs. The DOE ultimately decided not to eliminate or reduce the number of DOE employees in those jobs for at least another year.
It all started when the new federal education law gave more flexibility to these nonpublic schools regarding how they use their Title I money for supplemental instruction for at-risk students. The yeshivas saw this as an opening to do what they wanted, and they wanted to hire a cheaper, less qualified workforce. But the law also states that the local education agency — in this case, the city DOE — has to approve the Title I services that nonpublic schools receive. That gave the union a point of leverage.
The law states that services in nonpublic schools should be equitable to those in public schools. What could be more equitable than having somebody from the DOE with a master’s or doctorate, someone with a career in education?
The union put together a team of people who were wonderful. Without the union, it would have been just me fighting and we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off. Without the union, we wouldn't have won this one-year reprieve.
My members were exuberant. They are excited to be able to go back to work at their sites this September. They are super happy and thankful to the union.
Jennifer Czerwin is a school counselor in Manhattan nonpublic schools and the leader of the UFT’s Nonpublic Schools Chapter.
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